Ramen Doodles
By Andrew J. Talon
Disclaimer: I do not and probably never will own Naruto or any other copyrighted works mentioned in this story. I am not writing this for profit.
Just a very ancient snippet I found on an old flashdrive, it deals with Naruto being raised by, essentially, cavemen. He's called "Whirlwind" here.
Whirlwind had always looked forward to the first hunt. Not so much the prestige it would gain him in the tribe, no. But more for the chance to finally get out of the valley.
He'd tried so many different things growing up to fill this ache, this need in his head. Where his peers drew images of what they would hunt on the cave walls, Whirlwind drew people upside down, giant snakes that could breathe fire, and all manner of things that occurred to his mind.
He could See just as well as any of his peers, closing his eyes and letting the sensation of protrusions of trees, birds flying above him, and changes in the wind wash over his mind. But he kept trying to push his own Flow onto what he Saw, grasp at their Flows. The roots of trees, the grass, even insects.
Mother wanted him to stop. Only medicine women and men were allowed to change Flows. Everyone else could only See them, or make them run faster or slower. Never should they be twisted, changed.
Whirlwind sulked, but at Mother's insistence and the glares of the others in the tribe he'd kept it to a minimum.
He didn't know why, but he just needed to be out. Leave the tribe. Not forever, but just to see more, fill his head.
And maybe understand what these old memories of a giant red fox meant. Maybe understand why when others in the tribe Looked at him they called him Fire Behind Stone.
"Look out!"
A warning was cried and Whirlwind managed to stop staring into space to Look. Something approached, a Blind One by the signature, only this one was of a dark fire. He saw with his eyes the Blind One appear, wrapped in black and with eyes glowing red. The Blind One moved towards him, hunter screaming in his mind, and Whirlwind backed away, fear blossoming inside him.
Old Tree and Firesky leaped forward, spears at the ready to attack the Blind One, but they fell in an instant, heads sliced off. Whirlwind panicked and fled, running, tapping into the Flow to bolster his speed, but the Blind One followed, those burning eyes following him, mocking him. The fox to the rabbit, the cat to the mouse, he closed.
Whirlwind pushed harder and harder, fear driving him, faster and faster, until the Fire inside erupted and shot him forward, everything blurring, all sense of the Flow and the Blind One fading.
At last, Whirlwind felt the Fire burn down, and he collapsed in a heap in a clearing. He felt tired, so tired...
"Damnit, why am I the one to always do this?"
Yamanaka Ino grumbled as she made her way down the forest trail, utterly unaffected by the cheerful sunshine and smell of the wildflowers. She was almost an academy graduate, damnit! She shouldn't be sent on errands like this!
"Gather some flowers, we need some rare ones," she muttered angrily. "Oh, they're just on top of a mountain, no problem for you pumpkin! Feh..."
She was not some hardened, unfeminine forest girl, thank you! She was a beautiful kunoichi, one easily capable of winning anyone's heart and breaking them just as easily. She only wanted the heart of one man, of course. Uchiha Sasuke. Becoming a ninja was the first step towards that end.
"Maybe he'd appreciate some color in his home?" Ino pondered absently. If so, it might be worth it to pick some extra flowers. Not that she thought he was unmasculine in any way, no, not at all. But surely someone as refined as the Uchiha heir would appreciate the delicate art of flower arrangement!
So lost in her thoughts, Ino tripped right over a furry obstacle in the trail.
"ACK! OOF!"
Ino groaned, and got back to her feet. She turned around and blinked.
"What the...?"
At first glance, the obstacle looked like a fair sized furry animal with a blond top. But, as it slowly stood up with a very human sounding groan, Ino could see it was a boy.
He was about her height, well built and lean as his bare chest revealed. Ino's jaw dropped and she struggled not to drool at the muscular and limber build of the boy's body. Aside from the large fur cloak and loincloth, as well as a fur bag tied around his waist, he was nude.
Ino stared into sleepy, deep blue eyes, set in a tanned face under long, rather shaggy blond hair. He reminded her of an Inuzuka clan member, to be honest, though the whisker markings on his cheeks were more like those of a cat.
His eyes widened suddenly. Startled, Ino backed away at the same time he fell back down to the ground.
"Hey! Are you okay?" She asked. The boy just continued to back away, shaking and fearful. Ino blinked again.
What... What's with him? He's so...
"I'm not going to hurt you," she murmured quietly, crouching down to meet his eyes. He'd stopped backing away, looking wary. She smiled.
"Now... It's okay... Just relax... I won't hurt you, I promise... Can you tell me your name?"
At the boy's confused look, Ino had a terrible thought. His clothes (or lack thereof, her inner was still drooling over), his disheveled condition...
"Can you understand me?" She tried. The boy blinked. Ino sighed, and pointed to herself.
"Ino. Iiiino," she said, pointing to herself. The boy blinked, and copied the motion like a mirror.
"Ino. Iiiino," he repeated, imitating the pitch of her voice. Ino blinked again.
"No, I'm Ino," she emphasized, shaking her head.
"No, I'm Ino," the boy repeated, same inflection, same motion. Ino scowled.
"Geez... You need some help, bad."
Whoever this boy was, he was clearly not from around here. Or if he was, he'd lived on his own, away from anyone human. Ino kept flashing back to an old story she'd read as a child about a boy raised by foxes... Somehow, he reminded her about it.
Flowers forgotten, she reached out a hand to him, smiling comfortingly. The boy blinked and reached back, slowly taking it. Ino stood back up, and he did the same.
"All right then... Let's go..."
She made a face.
"First things first though... You definitely need a bath."
With a bit of Tarzan thrown in... Weird, but you never know. Someone might like it.